Oh, the teenage angst..
My mom took me christmas shopping a couple days ago to get me a christmas present. By this point she has pretty much given up on the whole "surprise" aspect of christmas gifts. She just takes me out to the mall and tells me to buy something- Clothes are always the worst part though- You see, I think my Mom realizes that slowly but surely I've removed her from all fashion aspects of my life, ever since I started paying for my own clothes, she no longer has had any leverage as far as making me wear things I don't want to. It's only around christmas time, since SHE'S buying the clothes- that she gets input as to what they are. And she ALWAYS makes me pick out an "outfit" and not just any outfit, a "nice" one. Which basically means, "Adam, I don't really like the clothes you wear, why can't you dress more like a fifty year old? You would look so much better like that." She always makes such a big deal of how "horribly low" I wear my pants.. and always insists that to properly wear pants, they have to be at, or above, the belly button. Sigh.. I go through it every year.. It's one of the things I liked about being away at college. I didn't have to worry about my mom thinking the lowness of my pants would reflect her as a poor parent- I think my mom is just holding on to the hope that someday I'll become a pastor.. That I'll eventually see the foolishness of my ways and finally realize that to be a good and upstanding young citizen- a PASTOR citizen, if I'm really good- I can't be seen in anything less than dockers and a dress shirt, preferably one with a really bad tie. Then I'll be the "coolest kid on the block", not only that, but all mothers will love me and will say to my mom, "my what a wonderfully bland child you have raised! I mean, not only is he polite, but completely boring and unoriginal! What a great mother you are! However did you do it? Lobotomy? Fantastic! I'll have to sign my child up for that right away! Did I mention what a wonderful mother you are?!!" And all the mothers of the world will rush off and mentally neuter their children and the world will be filled with polite and successful doctors and pastors- all wearing bad ties. What a perfect world that would be.
Sometimes I wonder if my mom has a limited memory.. Is it possible that she just doesn't remember the fact that she was also young once? Maybe it's just the simple fact that every generation blindly believes theirs is the one that finally discovered the true meaning of cool, and every generation before them was too old to understand it, and any generation after them is too young and foolish to see it. So they go on their way convinced of their coolness until one day they have kids of their own and suddenly realize they themselves have become stodgy old farts...
It's gonna happen to me someday...
Sometimes I wonder if my mom has a limited memory.. Is it possible that she just doesn't remember the fact that she was also young once? Maybe it's just the simple fact that every generation blindly believes theirs is the one that finally discovered the true meaning of cool, and every generation before them was too old to understand it, and any generation after them is too young and foolish to see it. So they go on their way convinced of their coolness until one day they have kids of their own and suddenly realize they themselves have become stodgy old farts...
It's gonna happen to me someday...